Monitoring political independence of public service media: comparative analysis across 19 European Union member states

This paper examines risks for political independence of public service media in European Union Member States by examining legal safeguards for guaranteeing independence of public service media’s governance and its funding mechanisms, and also the extent to which these are implemented. The analysis was conducted in 19 EU countries through a questionnaire-based method. The questionnaire was completed by a local team consisting of national media scholars. Results point to differences in media policies concerned with PSM’s independence among EU countries, with many risks associated with these policies and their implementation. Specifically, significant risk for PSM’s political independence has been identified in more than half of the EU Member States included in the sample (n=11), most of these being countries of Southern and Central Eastern Europe.

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Media Business Studies on 19/08/2016, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/16522354.2016.1227529

Published online: 19 Sep 2016